Organising charts for a family
Organising charts for a family means keeping each person's inputs in one place, with the same settings, so that results can be compared fairly.
What it is
Use the same ayanamsa and offset convention for everyone, and record each person's data with its source. Keep the family records private, since they contain personal details.
How it is worked out or read
Keep only what each person has agreed to share. This site does not store any chart, so any collection must be kept on your own device.
Where it appears on this site
The birth chart tool can be used for each person. The matching and consent article covers sharing other people's data.
Why families keep charts
In many Indian families, a birth chart is made soon after a child is born, and the family keeps it for life. The chart is used at naming, consulted again at the sacred thread or education milestones, and brought out once more at the time of marriage. Over generations a family may build up a small archive: charts of grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren, sometimes in different hands, styles and almanac conventions. Keeping that collection in good order makes it far more useful.
Record the source of each birth time
The single most important note to keep with each chart is where the birth time came from. A time from a hospital record is usually reliable to a few minutes. A time remembered by a parent years later may be rounded to the nearest quarter or half hour. A time estimated from an event, such as just after sunrise prayers, may be uncertain by much more. Writing the source on each chart lets anyone reading it later judge how much weight to give the Lagna and houses.
If a time is corrected later, keep both versions and note why the correction was made.
Keep the settings with the chart
Old charts in a family collection were often made by different astrologers using different ayanamsas and chart styles. Before comparing them, note the ayanamsa if it is known, and recalculate each chart on the same tool so that the set is consistent. This site can produce charts under Lahiri, Raman or KP ayanamsa, and the printout records which was used. A consistent set makes it easier to compare family members and to see shared patterns, if any.
Privacy and consent
Birth details are personal information. A date, time and place of birth can be used to identify a person, and charts are sometimes shared more widely than their owners would like, for example during marriage enquiries. Ask adult family members before sharing their charts outside the family, keep digital copies in a private folder rather than a public one, and avoid posting full birth details online. This site's calculators run in the browser and do not store the details you enter.
A simple filing system
A practical system is one folder, paper or digital, with a page or file per person. Name each file by the person's name and birth date. Inside, keep the original chart if there is one, the recalculated chart from a consistent tool, a note of the time source, and any notes from readings over the years. Reviewing the collection once a year, for example at the new year in the family's calendar, keeps it current as new members are born.